Peace Light coming to Ellwood

Friday

Dec 23, 2011 at 12:01 AMDec 23, 2011 at 12:30 PM

By Louise CarrollCalkins Media

The Light of Bethlehem called the Peace Light is coming to Ellwood City.

From 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, the Jim Houk family invites anyone who would like to come to their house at 123 Orchard Ave., Ellwood City to carry the flame back to their church or their home. They are advised to use, for example, a candle in a can secured in a box or a lantern.

The little light began its journey at the flame of the Eternal Flame from the Nativity Grotto in Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. These oil lamps have reportedly burned for more than 1,000 years.

The light's journey is a story of faith and a very low-tech social network. No emails, texts or downloads are used. The light moves through a chain of personal exchanges, organized by the Boy Scouts of America and their counterparts worldwide, who used nothing more complicated than a wick dipped in oil or wax.

A group of Israeli and Palestinian scouts lit a candle a few weeks ago in the grotto at the Church of the Nativity, They took the flame to the Tel Aviv Airport, where it was transported on an Austrian Airlines flight to Vienna and then on another flight to New York. In New York, the flame lit a lantern at Ground Zero and, in the days that followed, it was driven to the West Coast, with dozens of stops along the way.

The light's journey to Ellwood City began when Joe Reding, a volunteer, from the Iowa Boy Scout Council, picked up the light in New York that had been burning continuously on a plane from Austria, to Vienna. He drove the Peace Light to the Heart of America Council Boy Scout office in Kansas City, which is home to the Peace Light until Christmas.

The Mason Dixon Council of Boy Scouts from the Pennsylvania area drove to Iowa and brought the light back in a lantern. Evelyn Kloos, the Houks' daughter, who is a nurse at Meredith Hospital in Hagerstown, Md., got the light from the Boy Scouts. The light was used for a memorial service at the hospital for babies, who had died the past year.

Kloos is driving the light from her home in Hagerstown to Ellwood City where it will be available for people to share at the Houks' home. It will also be available on Sunday, Christmas morning, at the 10 a.m. service at the Slippery Rock Presbyterian Church at Old Pittsburgh Road, Ellwood City.

Scouts overseas have been distributing the Christmas Peace Light for 20 years. The Peace Light from Bethlehem campaign, now in its 26th year, was originally organized by the Austrian Broadcasting Co.

Since 1986, there has been a great deal of cooperation between Scouts and guides in many countries that has allowed the light to travel throughout Europe. The light is passed to 30 European countries and for the past few years to North America, Mexico and Canada.

It would not be easy to fly a flame across the ocean and it would not even be possible without the head of airline security on the Peace Light committee. An Austrian security officer escorted the Peace Light in several smokeless mining lanterns throughout the international trip.

Each year, a child from Upper Austria kindles the light in Bethlehem. It is flown to Austria from where it is distributed at a service of dedication to delegations from across Europe who take it back, with a message of peace, to their own countries for use at ecumenical services throughout the continent. Scouts and guides can then take the light on to other churches, hospitals, senior citizen homes, prisons, and places of public, cultural and political importance and to anybody that appreciates the significance of the gift.

The following prayer is at the Peace Light website:

May the kindly spirit of Christmas spread its radiance far and wide,

So all the world may feel the glow, of this Holy Christmastide.

So may this light of peace today that has traveled many miles,

Bring joy and hope to many, and fill each face with smiles.

So may every heart and home continue through the year,

To feel the warmth and wonder of this season of good cheer.

And may it bring us closer to God and to each other.

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